Content Marketing Strategy Workshop

Content Marketing Strategy Workshop August 24, 2015 // New York City Michael Brenner Head of Strategy, NewsCred @BrennerMichael

Goals for Strategy Workshop  Understand what an effective content marketing strategy looks like  Determine where your content will live. Understand important site elements  Understand Editorial Strategy and gain clarity on editorial mission and topics  Brainstorm content ideas  Understand distribution best practices  Determine the measures of success @BrennerMichael

Content Marketing Strategy @BrennerMichael

Just 3 Things . . . The world has changed. Most content stinks. Attract people through stories they love. @BrennerMichael

Content today must compete with pictures of babies and kittens. @BrennerMichael

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Content marketing trends

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“We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in, and start delivering what people are interested in. ” @BrennerMichael

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We tune out the noise. @BrennerMichael

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“The buyer journey is nothing more than a series of questions that must be answered. - IDC - ” @BrennerMichael

Awareness Consideration Preference Online Communities Search Engines eBooks Email Newsletters Editorial Articles White Papers Podcasts Case Studies Online Videos Webcasts Virtual Trade Shows Product Literature Trial Software Online Vendor Demos Begin decision process Make decision Identify business problem Establish requirements/ build RFP Align IT with business objectives Explore technology options Research solutions Determine solution strategy Assess ROI Research products/ vendors Build short list @BrennerMichael

@BrennerMichael

Ann Handley: “Take your brand out of the story. . . . . .Make your customers the hero.” Our Natural Instinct Content Marketing What Brands Publish What Customers Want Charity @BrennerMichael

Content Marketing Your Brand Purpose What Customers Want Exercise: Why does your brand exist? What purpose does it serve? @BrennerMichael

“Content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.” -Content Marketing Institute • Not advertising or PR • It is continuous not campaign-based • Customer-focused, not brand-focused • Seeks to answer customer questions across the buyer journey • Owned media = An asset for your business with LTV and ROI Content Marketing Defined @BrennerMichael

The Promise of Content Marketing: To earn your audience . . . . . . versus buying it! @BrennerMichael

Key factors to content marketing success: 1. Documented content strategy and mission statement 2. Have someone accountable for content 3. Consistently publish quality content 4. Map content to consumer journey 5. Paid Distribution 6. Focus on Content Subscribers 7. Track Content Marketing ROI @BrennerMichael

Now: Give yourself a grade . . Best Practice R Y G Have a documented content strategy? Have someone managing content Content hub maps to the consumer journey Publishing quality, volume and variety Social activation of content Paid distribution Focus on Content Subscriptions Measurement template / ROI defined Overall: ? @BrennerMichael

Why is it important to have a documented content strategy?

Content Marketing Mission Statement Become a destination for [target audience] interested in [topics]. To help them [customer value]. This will help us [content marketing goals] • Earn your audience’s attention vs. just buying it • Reach, engage and convert NEW buyers AmEx Open Forum Example: Help Small Businesses Do More Business. To become the largest source of inbound leads. @BrennerMichael

What Is Your Content Marketing Mission Statement? Become a (premier?) destination for [target audience] interested in [topics] to help them [customer value]. @BrennerMichael

Steps to crafting a content strategy Discovery Destination Branding + Design Roles + Responsibility Editorial Strategy Distribution + Optimization Measurement •Current State •Target Audience •Business Case •Mission Statement •Budget •Branding •UX •Platform •Who does what? •Tech Partner •Agency •Structure •Topics •Types •Sources •SEO •SEO •Platforms •Paid •Owned •Earned •Email Newsletter •Business Case KPIs •Define report •How often @BrennerMichael

Building the content marketing business case 1. Reach early stage buyers 2. Engage new buyers with your brand 3. Conversions you would have never reached @BrennerMichael

60-70% of marketing content goes completely unused. *Sirius Decisions @BrennerMichael

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Behind every piece of bad content is an executive who asked for it. TWEET THIS! @BrennerMichael

Conduct A Content Audit • Content Type • Audience / Target • Buyer Stage • Primary Destination • Performance @BrennerMichael

Look at Content by Buyer Stage Early Stage Middle Stage Late Stage 66% 28% Early-Stage Content Late-Stage Content Middle-Stage Content 6% @BrennerMichael

Your Business Goals Select one or more from the list (or add your own): 1. Create affinity for your core products and brands 2. To reach new potential buyers with unbranded search 1. To retain existing customers 2. Upsell existing customers / retention 3. Convert them through digital offers, paths to sale @BrennerMichael

Joe Pulizzi: “Don’t build your house on rented land.” - Publish On Your Own Content Hub - @BrennerMichael

Consider Your Destination and Branding @BrennerMichael

Design Structure 1) Categories across the top show visitor what space you are in 2) Images help humanize the site and break text 3) Published content horizontally shows frequency (add dates and authors) 4) Share buttons encourage social sharing 5) Mid-stage offer on right 6) Newsletter/subscription sign up @BrennerMichael

Categories across the top show visitor what space you are in

Images are authentic and create context for the content

Author bylines show authenticity and the dates show frequency

Share buttons encourage social sharing

Recommended or Most Popular @BrennerMichael

Heavy call-to-action + subscription

Define Content Marketing Roles and Functions Content Marketer / Editor Strategizes, writes, and oversees content projects to ensure brand consistency and alignment with business objectives. Community Manager Distributes content across social channels, engages online communities, and contributes to content projects. Designer Brings content to life through the user experience and rich visuals. Contributors Any content creator- blogger, photographer, designer — who contributes to your project. SEO / Paid Specialist Manages the paid distribution of content online. Analytics Defines best/ worst performers, conversion optimization and measurement communications. Curation Fines and re- purposes the best content from your business and from around the web. @BrennerMichael

April 27, 2015 Editorial Strategy

• Thinking and acting like a publisher • Mapping keywords to the buyer journey • The “persona filter” • The importance of imagery • The impact of volume on reach and conversion What we’ll cover in this section: @BrennerMichael

What Are We Going to Write About? @BrennerMichael

How brands can become consumed with their story, not their customers. Unique Point of View Trap @BrennerMichael

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The Biggest Mistake Brands Make With Content Marketing Is Making The Content All About Them Think and Act like a Publisher!

• Thinking and acting like a publisher • Create the content your audience (actually) wants • Build an audience, then monetize it • Manage content as an asset with an ROI Effective Editorial Strategy @BrennerMichael

How do you give a pile of bricks order? • What are different ways you could organize content? • Consider recurring themes / series / trigger events • Look at publishers in your space @BrennerMichael

Reach, Engage and Convert the Right People. Early-stage Searches Middle-stage Brand Searches Search/SocialVolume What is Content Marketing? (10-3000 X) Who is the best Content Marketing provider? (2-10 X) NewsCred Content Marketing software is how awesome? @BrennerMichael

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Secondary Early Xyz Late Xyz Xyz Persona Questions/Concerns Xyz Middle Xyz Xyz Keywords Main Early What is [your solution] Late How much is [your solution] [your solution] Persona Questions/Concerns [your solution] Middle How to succeed with [Your solution] [your solution] Keywords Stage Stage Research Keywords, Then Filter By Personas @BrennerMichael

Utilize the Right Mix of Content Custom Content Share on-brand stories and recipes which are created specifically for your brand. Community Content Leverage content from customers, employees, influencers that grows and engages your community. Licensed Content Boost credibility, publishing cadence, and direct traffic with a high-volume of fully-licensed, compliant content.

Content Mix (Monthly Average) Licensed Custom Social Custom Content 20% User / Employee 50% Licensed Content 30% @BrennerMichael

How To Rank For SEO? The 3 Vs (Content Mix) Volume Number of posts on the topic Value The best answer on the internet Variety Text, images, video, slides @BrennerMichael

Imagery matters 60,000 X the brain processes images faster than text. 78% of consumers say that the quality of a product image is “very important” in selecting and purchasing a product 94% more total views on content featuring compelling images than content without images. @BrennerMichael

66 Case Study: Bloomberg uses stunning imagery to bring “dry” topics to life

‘Big Data’ @BrennerMichael

‘Technology’ @BrennerMichael

‘Intraday Settlement Compresses Trading Cycle’ @BrennerMichael

‘Transform Data Into A Strategic Access’ @BrennerMichael

‘Intraday Settlement Compresses Trading Cycle’

The Impact Of Volume On Reach and Conversion • Publishers publish every day on each topic, category or theme • Organic Traffic goes up with each new article published • Diminishing return? (see below) • Optimize content budget vs. paid distribution budget • Increasing frequency will increase Organic + Social % of Total PVs A few times a year 1-2X per month < monthly 1-2X per week 1 per day More than 1 per day

Blog Post Brainstorm

Content Amplification and Distribution

• The Converged Media approach • Best Practices for Distribution: • Email • Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram) • Paid What we’ll cover in this section: @BrennerMichael

Maximizing the Reach of Your Content A “converged media” approach utilizes paid, owned, and earned media to deliver content the audience wants and maximizing the reach of that content. Paid Social Influencer Leverage your owned content and channels Maximize organic buzz, social engagement, and PR Organic traffic & SEO Quickly grow your audience & jumpstart engagement Converged Paid Content Distribution (Outbrain, Sharethrough) @BrennerMichael

Social networks dominate content discovery

Social media can have a real impact on your bottom line. 78% of consumers said that companies’ social media posts impact their purchasing decision 30% of buyers say that social media is very important in making their purchasing decisions @BrennerMichael

Other people’s content Your helpful posts Promotional Best Practices: Overall • Establish a unique voice and stick with it • Be transparent and authentic • Give due credit to authors and sources • Play to the strengths of each platform: post the content that makes the most sense • Maintain a consistent cadence • Respond to fans (and haters) in a timely manner • Truly know your audience • Have variety of content: original, licensed, UGC (see below) @BrennerMichael

Tactics for distribution 1. Ad networks (example: Google AdWords) 2. Organic Social (example: LinkedIn) 3. Paid Social (example: LinkedIn Sponsored Update) 4. Native advertising (example: Sharethrough) 5. SEO 6. Lead nurturing (both paid & earned) (example: newsletter) @BrennerMichael

Email

Benefits of email newsletter distribution 1. Keep your audience engaged 2. Free distribution channel 3. Provides instantaneous trackable results 4. Nurture and convert leads 45% of NewsCred’s traffic came from email @BrennerMichael

• Digestible content: Top 2 posts are infographics. • The BuzzFeed effect: 4 of top 10 articles had headlines with words like: "top," "best," "most.” • Know your audience: 35% of top 20 articles have the mention of "content marketing" or "content marketers.” • Stats matter: 70% of top 10 articles have numbers in the headline. • Stay familiar: 25% of top 20 articles have a brand name mentioned in the headline - Ello, Vice, BuzzFeed, Nike, and Red Bull. Newsletters are Vital for Identifying Trends and Takeaways @BrennerMichael

Steps to creating an email marketing plan Who will manage? What content will you include? Determine sending frequency and goals Make a schedule @BrennerMichael

Creating a Social Media Content Plan

Just because you can publish to every social channel, doesn’t mean you should. Find out which channels are most important for your audience and focus on 2 – 3 to start. @BrennerMichael

Where is your target buyer? *Buffer, Pew research 2013 Cheat Sheet: @BrennerMichael

Pros and Cons Pros Cons Facebook Everyone is on it! High competition Twitter Younger, tech-savvy crowd who loves information Need to be able to keep up with cadence LinkedIn Highly-targeted. Very educated audience of business professionals (great for B2B) B2C companies need to figure out Instagram Younger audience. Hard if click-through is end-goal or text-heavy content Pinterest TK TK @BrennerMichael

Best practices across social channels

The positive feedback loop of social: Build an audience, share great content, engage on each platform.

Tag brands/people where appropriate 1. Good social media etiquette 2. Great way to show influencers some love 3. Can be a great way to get more followers @BrennerMichael

Know the art of the hashtag @BrennerMichael

What Is the ideal cadence for each channel? Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Pinterest Suggested Cadence 2 times per day, 5-7 days per week 1 tweet per hour 2x per day Varies (best to test). 1-2 times per day  2/3 times per week On the low end, try for 5 pins/day. If you have more content you can go up to 30/day (Best results from 15-30 pins/day) @BrennerMichael

Overwhelmed by that last slide? 1. Don’t be afraid to post the same piece of content multiple times. • Use the headline once • Use a quote from the article once (or many different quotes different times!) • Grab a stat from the article and share that 2. Pre-schedule tweets… but have an action plan in place for real-time. 3. Evergreen content is your friend! 4. Ask your writer/team to come up with multiple tweets per each article @BrennerMichael

Paid Distribution

Even great content needs a push The average Hollywood movie spends 50-60% of production budget on distribution. @BrennerMichael

Twitter: promoted tweets, lead generation cards, web cards, etc. Facebook: boosted posts, ad sets LinkedIn: sponsored updates, ad campaigns • Unsure about what platform and what ad to use? • A/B test until you get it right - companies who test are 75% more likely to show ROI for content marketing than those who fail to test their strategies. Paid Social

Help new audiences discover your content with Outbrain or Taboola • “Recommended For You!” Get in front of audiences who are Already reading content about your topic on other sites but who you aren’t already reaching. Best choice for budget distribution @BrennerMichael

Measurement

Three key metrics to measure for Brand Awareness Website Traffic • Visits • Time Spent on Site • Pages consumed per visit Social Engagement • Followers • Shares • Reach Content Consumption • Subscriptions • Content Downloads @BrennerMichael

Define Key Measures and Targets @BrennerMichael

Organic and Social Traffic: The Health Of Your Program 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 UniqueVisitors Traffic from Organic, Social & Referrals @BrennerMichael

@BrennerMichael

What to track and when Track top content / shares / topics on related sites monthly • Top 50 Influencers • 10 Blog Sites • Terms You Need To Know • 10 Predictions For… • What Is [Keyword]? • Infographics • SlideShares • Videos @BrennerMichael

Social KPI Overview: Audience size + Engagement Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Brand Awareness Page likes, page visits, impressions, reach Followers, impressions, reach, follower/following ratio Company page likes, page views, visitors Engagement Post likes, comments, shares, clicks, “stories created” RTs, favorites, replies, @mentions, clicks, engagement rate Likes, comments, shares, clicks, engagement Lead Generation Link clicks to form or gated page, blog subscribe Lead generation card clicks, link clicks to gated page, blog subscribe Link clicks to form or gated page @BrennerMichael

In Conclusion…

Key factors to content marketing success: 1. Documented content strategy and mission statement 2. Have someone accountable for content 3. Consistently publish quality content 4. Map content to consumer journey 5. Balance Paid, Owned, and Earned Media 6. Focus on Content Subscribers 7. Track Content Marketing ROI @BrennerMichael

Hope you’re excited to create amazing content!

Thank you! @BrennerMichael